The Shooting of Shawn Spencer
by FrodoLuverNumber1
Summary: After a fight with his dad leaves him wandering down the streets of Santa Barbara, Shawn is shot by a mugger and it's not clear if he will make it. Will Shawn survive and will his friends be there for him? *A one-shot I think it's called? If not, it's a short story*


"But please, Dad! I'm serious!"

Henry Spencer huffs in aggravation at his son Shawn. "Oh, are you? Detective Lassiter is a killer? Now, that is going too far, even for you!"

Shawn sighs. "Dad, just hear me out-"

"No!" Henry shouts, his temper rising. "You are just so, so, so, I don't know! Annoying? Childish? Self-centered?"

Henry sighs in exaggeration. "Gosh, sometimes I wish I never even had you."

There is a long pause and there is a tense feeling in the air.

Shawn's heart breaks at this statement. It's practically in two when he says, "Well, okay. If that's how you feel, I'm glad to know it. I'll just leave you alone and give you your wish by not having me around anymore."

Tears start to build in Shawn's eyes as he says, "You're welcome, Dad."

And with that, Shawn turns quickly on his heel and walks out the door.

With tears streaming down his cheeks, Shawn comprehends what his father had said. His dad wish he'd never had him? A feeling of pain and anguish descends unto Shawn and sinks straight into his heart. It feels as if someone had stabbed him in the heart and was now twisting it deeper and deeper.

And the someone that stabbed him in the heart was his own father.

He practically said he hated him. His own father did. He hated him.

His vision blurred by his tears, Shawn doesn't notice the staggering figure coming right at him.

Nor the gun he has in his sweatshirt pocket.

The man comes up to Shawn and pushes the gun into Shawn's stomach, making Shawn's heartbeat accelerate rapidly. "Gimme' ya' wallet," he whispers gruffly, his eyes darting around.

"Okay, buddy," Shawn says, raising his hands, trying to cool the guy down. "I don't want any trouble so how 'bout you just turn around and waltz back from wherever you came from, alright? Who knows? Maybe we'll part ways as unlikely friends."

The man cocks his gun and says, "You a smart ass? 'Cause you sound like one." His eyes narrow and he continues: "And I don't like smart asses."

A huge gunshot whistles through the air as well as multiple screams and Shawn feels an intense pressure on his belly and then the pain starts. It is absolutely unbearable and it's the worst pain Shawn has ever been in. He falls to his knees and clutches the gaping wound on his stomach as the world goes black.

Henry Spencer stands in his living room feeling like the world's worst father. He probably is.

His own word rattles around in his head. What had he just said? That was his SON he had just said that to. What was wrong with him?

How could he have said that?

As Henry ponders how he could be so cruel, his home phone rings.

"Hello?"

"Is this Henry Spencer?" A young-sounding man says into the phone.

"Yes. Why?"

"Ummm, your son has been... shot."

Henry drops the phone which clatters to the floor with a THUD!

Oh, God, no.

"Mr. Spencer?" the young man's voice floats up to Henry's ears from the phone on the floor.

Henry picks up the phone and shakily puts it his ear. "What hospital is he at?"

"St. Vincent's."

"I'll be right there."

Police Chief Karen Vick sits at her desk, thinking about a particularly brutal case when she gets the call.

She definitely doesn't suspect it. I mean, from Henry Spencer? The two had had about five conversations in the whole time they'd known each other. Why would Henry be calling her?

When she sees the caller I.D., she only suspects the worst.

"Hello? Chief Vick?"

"Shawn's been shot!"

Karen almost drops the phone at this. "W-What? H-Henry, are you alright? Why are you panting?"

"My car's in the shop, so I'm running to the hospital. Can you just tell Juliet and Carlton to go to St. Vincent's? I know Carlton and Shawn don't exactly see eye-to-eye all the time but he should be here. I already called Gus. Just meet me there."

"Of course, Henry."

Vick hangs up her phone and dashes out of her office.

Juliet O'Hara and Carlton Lassiter look up from their respective desks and frown at their obviously upset usually calm Police Chief.

"What's wrong, Vick?" Carlton asks with sincerity.

"Shawn Spencer has been shot."

You can hear a pin drop in the police department.

Tears spring to Juliet's eyes at this news. She doesn't want to know, but she feels she must ask. "Is he... you know."

"Dead?" Carlton helps her out. "Juliet, you deal with dead people all the time."

"Except this time we know the person who could be dead, Carlton!" Juliet screams and the submerged tears begin to pour from her eyes.

"Oh, right..." Carlton mutters awkwardly. He had said that comment to seem brave and unaffected. when in actuality he's freaking out inside. Sure, Carlton wants to strangle him fifty times a day and he is annoying as hell, but Shawn always has the well fare of the people whose cases he is on at heart. Shawn is a good kid and just thinking of something bad happening to him, Carlton can't bear it. "Well, where is he?"

"Yeah, where?" Juliet asks, tears pouring from her eyes. Juliet had just started to realize her feelings for the apparently wounded pshycic. His wit, looks, cocky charm, not to mention he obviously likes her already. And know he's been shot? What if he's dead? Oh, God.

"St. Vincent's," Karen says, trying to keep her voice steady. Shawn was always meddling in some business of the SBPD and being obnoxious, but all-in-all, Shawn was a good person.

"Well, let's get over there!" Juliet exclaims, grabbing her purse and hurrying out of the SBPD, Carlton and Karen in tow.

Burton Guster is sitting in his comfy leather chair watching American Duos when he gets the call.

"What? Who's calling me? I gotta' see if Tamesha is voted off!" Gus exclaims, grabbing for his ringing phone. "Hello?"

"Gus, Shawn's been shot! Get to St. Vincent's ASAP, okay?" Henry Spencer's voice floats from the phone up to Gus' shocked ears. "Bye."

The phone slips from Gus' fingers and crashes to the floor. Shawn? Shot? What if he's... Oh, God, no.

Shawn, why? Why did he go looking for trouble? Didn't he realize that eventually this would happen? Gus had. He knew that one day, Shawn would get in too deep with his schemes and end up getting hurt and now it happened. What if Shawn wasn't going to make it?

Gus feels sadness and terror grip his heart and he starts to cry. Shawn is his best friend after all! Gus wipes away the tears. No, don't cry. You have to be strong. For Shawn.

Gus grabs his keys to the Blueberry and heads out to be there for his best friend.

As the group separately arrives to the hospital, they park their cars and dash into the hospital.

"Carlton Lassiter! SBPD!" Carlton announces to the young nurse at the front desk, pulling out his badge and shoving it in the nurse's face.

"That's good for you," the nurse rolls his eyes.

"I don't know why I did that," Carlton looks confused. "I'm just so used to doing it. Okay, what room is Shawn Spencer in?"

The nurse checks his chart and says with sadness, "The ER. He's in, uh... critical condition."

The group stare at the nurse in a mixture of shock, sadness, and rage.

"Oh, no!" Henry exclaims, sitting down in a nearby chair to keep from collapsing into a sobbing mess on the floor. So he turns into a sobbing mess in the chair.

"Well, bring him out of critical condition, then!" Carlton yells, slapping the front desk, making the nurse jump.

"I can't," the scared nurse says.

"Well, what can you do?" Carlton glares at the poor kid. "And what guy becomes a nurse? That's a girl job!"

"Carlton," Karen says with a harsh tone to her voice.

"What?" Carlton whips around.

Karen points to a seat to the left of Henry and hisses, "Sit down."

Carlton sits.

"Oh, Shawn! I'm so sorry!" Henry wails. Tears roll down his cheeks. "This is my fault! If I hadn't yelled at you, you wouldn't have gone outside and gotten... shot."

Juliet sits down by Carlton and cries softly. Carlton notices and wraps his arm around her shoulder. Juliet turns and sobs into his chest. Under normal circumstances, Carlton would of been embarrassed, but not now.

"O-Oh, God, C-Carlton, what if he's d-dying! What if he's a-already d-d-dead!" Juliet sobs, tripping over her words.

"Juliet," Carlton says softly, "it's okay. Shawn is going to be alright."

"H-How do y-you know?"

"I just have a feeling."

Juliet raises her head off of Carlton's chest and looks into his light blue eyes with her darker blue ones. Juliet can sense the fear and nervousness in Carlton's deep pools of blue. Carlton's eyes usually seem so distant and cold, but now they seem to hold and warmth that Juliet has never seem before. "A f-feeling? I always thought you needed evidence for things like this. I didn't think you were the kind of man who went on things like feelings."

"I don't usually, but this time I know Shawn's going to be alright," Carlton smiles sadly. "Don't worry, Jules."

"Jules? You never call me that," Jules smiles back.

"Oh, well, uh, sorry," Carlton stares at the floor awkwardly.

"No, it's fine. It's good. It seems like we're more than just partners, but friends," Juliet, or Jules says.

Gus sits down on a chair to the right of Henry and starts to cry too. But then he remembers his duty. He can't cry. He has to be strong. For his friends. And for Shawn. On the outside, he seems reserved and calm, but inside he's dying.

Karen sits down beside Henry. "Hey."

Henry wipes away his tears and replies, "Hi."

"Don't worry. Everything will be fine."

"What if it won't?"

"It will. I promise."

"How do you know?"

Karen smiles. "Shawn's a fighter. That's how I know, Henry."

Henry smiles his own sad smile.

"Thank-you, Karen."

"Don't mention it."

"No, really. Thank-you. For the encouragement and for getting Carlton and Juilet."

The two smile sadly at each other and wait.

Everyone waits. And waits. And waits until they can't wait anymore.

"Any word?" Gus asks the front desk nurse.

"Not ye-" the nurse says before his pager goes off. The nurse checks it and shoots up from his seat. He runs off into the door that says, "Emergency Room" across the top.

"Oh, no," Gus says, small tears forming in his eyes.

Finally, after hours and hours of waiting, the main doctor working on Shawn comes out of the ER door.

The group shoots up out of their chairs and exclaim, "Is Shawn okay?"

"He's in a coma, right now," the doctor says. "You can go see him, though."

Karen turns around. "Who should go first?"

Gus takes a deep breath and opens the door. Gus feels tears tears jump to his eyes and this time, he lets them fall down his cheeks.

Gus' heart breaks at the sight of his best friend. Shawn looks tired and weak, even while unconscious.

Gus walks over and sits down in a blue chair beside Shawn's bed. "Hey, Shawn. You've really freaked us all out. With being shot and all, I mean."

Gus sighs. "Damn it, Shawn. Wake up! Please, I hate seeing you like this. It's the worst. I can't stand this. If you wake up, I'm gonna' kill you." A long sigh. "But seriously, PLEASE wake up. You're my best friend. I couldn't imagine my life without you. I've known you forever. You're closer than family to me, Shawn. You're killing me right now."

Gus sits back and lets out a long, slow breath. "Get better, Shawn," he says and rises from the chair.

"Hi, Shawn."

Juliet is standing in Shawn's room, staring at Shawn's still form. Tears flood her eyes and she sits down in the blue chair beside the bed.

"Oh, Shawn," Juliet says, her vision blinded by tears. "I can't believe this. This is surreal. I can't believe this is happening. Why did this have to happen?

"Shawn, I-I think I l-love you. Wow, I said that out loud. I'm really glad you're unconscious. Er, I'm not glad you're unconscious! Just glad you didn't hear that."

Juliet sighs and wipes her eyes. "Shawn, you gotta' wake up. You've just GOT to. Please, do it for me?"

Juliet looks down and sees Shawn's hand. She looks around and on not seeing anyone around, she takes his hand in hers. "You're hand is so cold." Juliet takes both hands and wraps them around his frozen hand. "I'll try to warm you up. Maybe you're too cold to wake up? Who knows. Maybe if you're warm, you'll wake up. I'll try just about anything right now. I'm so desperate."

After a few minutes, nothing has changed. "Sorry, Shawn. I tried. Just wake up, okay? Do it for me. Please."

Karen opens the door and beholds the unconscious Shawn.

"Oh, poor kid," Karen says sadly.

She sits in the chair and looks at Shawn. "Your dad is really scared for you, Shawn. He told me about what he said to you. Your dad loves you, Shawn. You know that, don't you? Why am I asking you, you're not going to answer. He does, though. He really does.

"My mom and I had a tense relationship, too. We would fight all the time. But even though we almost started World War III, we always made up. You and your dad will. I'm sure of it."

Carlton sits in the blue chair and looks at Shawn. Just looks at him. This is so strange. He's used to Shawn to Shawn putting his fingers to his temples and shouting out some psychic message Shawn's intervened or flapping his arms around and hollering out a plea from a murdered chicken or something like that. Shawn was always doing something crazy and to seem him so still is... weird.

Carlton is so scared right now. What if Shawn never wakes up? Carlton would never admit it, but Shawn isn't the WORST person he's ever met. That special position was held for his ex-wife... Anyway, the fact that Shawn could possibly not wake up from this made Carlton sick to his stomach. Now, he would never admit it, but he considered Shawn his friend.

Now, Carlton could never admit any of that, so he says something more "Carlton-style".

"Spencer, if you're faking this for one of your schemes, I'll kill you."

That sounds more like Carlton.

Carlton starts to rise but sighs. No, say something better.

"And I promise you, Shawn, I'll find who did this to you. You can count on that. I'll give you the justice you deserve."

That's much better.

"I can't. I can't go in there and see my son like that. I'm sorry, but I can't."

"Henry, come on. He's your son. Just go in. We all said something," Karen says a little sternly.

"Even Lassie," Gus says, sounding surprised.

"What? I have a soft side. Kinda'," Carlton shrugs. "You should go see him, though, Henry."

Henry shakes his head. "I can't. Seeing him unconscious and broken. It'll kill me."

"I know, but you have to go in there. Do it for Shawn," Juliet says and puts a hand on his shoulder. "You need to go to him. Be strong, Henry. You can do this."

Henry takes a deep breath and nods. "Okay."

He makes his way to Shawn's room.

Henry takes another deep breath and trying to steel his nerves (to no avail, I might add), walks into his son's room.

The sight of Shawn is almost took much for Henry to take.

Shawn is lying still in the hospital bed, an I.V. protruding from his arm. Shawn is hooked up to a heart monitor and the only sound in the room is the slow beats of his heart on the machine. Shawn's pale and looks exhausted.

Henry's eyes well up with tears and he is consumed with emotion. The tears drip down his cheeks and he stumbles for the blue chair. In the chair, he sees the cloth that covers Shawn's belly and sees it's soaked with blood. He doesn't know what it is about the way his son looks that just kills him. He thinks it's the way he looks so vulnerable and... alone. And to think that he wasn't going to come in here. What a horrible father he is. Just the worst.

"Oh, Shawn," Henry says, his voice choked with sobs. "My little boy. Shawn, I want you to know I did NOT mean what I said about wishing you were never born. I said it out of anger and it's not what I want. The truth is, you're the greatest gift God's ever given me. Your my little boy. I love you so much, Shawn. So much. I wish you knew that. I wish I'd told you that, because know you might never know."

Henry bursts into another fit of tears and grabs Shawn's hand. He presses it to his forehead and sobs. "Shawn, wake up! You've got to. You've just got to."

Henry sobs quietly and barely notices when his little boy begins to stir.

"Woah, where am I?" Shawn mumbles groggily.

Henry's head shoots up and exclaims, "You're awake! Oh my God, Shawn, I thought you were dead!"

"Nope. Sorry, Dad. You didn't get your wish," Shawn mutters under his breath.

Henry looks at the floor. "Shawn, I never meant that."

"Oh, yeah? Why'd you say it then?"

Henry sighs and looks into his son's eyes. He starts to say something to the effect of, "Oh, Shawn, stop being a girl!" but stops. He repeats what he told Shawn when he was unconscious, word-for-word.

Shawn lies in his hospital bed, stunned. That was beautiful what his father had told him. We're talking about HENRY SPENCER here. Wow, just wow.

"Oh," is all Shawn can manage.

Henry smiles slightly. "Now, I'm the one being a girl."

Shawn laughs. "So, I'm the best thing that's ever happened to you, hugh?"

"Don't push it, kid," Henry grins at his son.

The two sit there in silence, perfectly content with it. Happy with it. Henry is just glad to have his wonderful son back and Shawn is happy to know he has his dad's love.

"Oh! Let me go get everyone!" Henry stands up abruptly and runs from the room to retrieve the nervous waiting group.

Shawn lays back his head and sighs happily. My dad loves me. Wow. I'm so happy right now. Shawn smiles and lifts his head as he hears the door open.

Gus practically tackles Shawn when he sees him. "Shawn, you must be outta' your damn mind! Getting shot like that! You scared me half to death!"

"Hey, buddy," Shawn smiles at his best friend. "Sorry 'bout that. Yeah, it wasn't that fun for me, either."

"Oh, yeah, it was probably worse for you," Gus smiles.

"Just a little," Shawn grins.

Juliet comes over to Shawn and kisses him right on the mouth. After she does so, she goes completely scarlet.

"What was that for?" Shawn asks, not minding it at all.

"I was just so scared for you! I thought you weren't going to wake up and it scared me to death!" Juliet exclaims.

"What would you have done without me?" Shawn asks cheekily to which Juliet rolls her eyes, but smiles back at the psychic.

"Shawn," Karen nods at Shawn and he pulls in Karen for a hug. Karen quickly jumps up and adjusts her suit. "Shawn!"

"What? I was almost killed! Don't I deserve a hug from my favorite police chief?"

Karen chuckles. "I suppose so."

"Hey, Spencer," Carlton says. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Really?" Shawn asks incredulously.

Carlton smiles "Yeah, I am. What would the SBPD do without our resident psychic?"

Shawn grins. "You would be quite lost without me?"

Carlton rolls his eyes. "Oh, God, Shawn."

Shawn smiles around at the group. Juliet is rubbing her neck, trying to work out a sore muscle. Gus is sitting in a chair, rubbing his eyes. Karen is talking to Henry, who are both looking very stressed out and Carlton is nodding off in the blue chair. Wow, they looked stressed.

"Hey, you guys should go home. You look exhausted," Shawn says to them.

"We need to be here for you," Juliet says.

"You've already been here for me. When I needed you guys the most, in surgery, you were here. But now, I need you guys to go home and rest. I'll be okay. Now, I'm the one that needs to worried unless you guys leave and go sleep!" Shawn smiles.

The group smiles and nod. "Okay, we'll go home. But before we go, do you need anything?" Henry asks.

"You know, some pineapple sounds fantastic."

* The End*


End file.
